First Look: Kelsie Leverich’s A Beautiful Distraction (May 6, 2014)

First Sergeant Rafe Murano did everything to the extreme. He trained harder, he fought harder, and, unfortunately, he loved harder. And falling for the wrong woman nearly destroyed him.

Home from a deployment and without his missions to consume him, Murano is ravaged by memories of his heartbreak. So he drinks until he’s numb and drowns himself in meaningless one-night stands. But they only take the edge off .

Until he meets Fallon.

Haunted by her past, Fallon Kelly knows all too well about the desperate desire for an escape. So when she sees the tatted-up bad boy who’s one punch away from a ride in the back of a squad car, she offers him a distraction—one that quickly becomes an addiction.

Little does she know, this bad boy can love so hard, it can break her.

In the Hard Feelings series, Kelsie Leverich brings tales of the men who fight for our country and the lives behind those brave soldiers. In A Beautiful Distraction, we get the full story of Rafe Murano.

Rafe is looking for a distraction from his broken heart. He is using alcohol and beautiful woman to make him forget that he fell in love with the wrong woman. When he gives his heart, he gives his whole heart and soul, and he doesn’t share his woman with anyone. Bridgette turned him into a pathetic loser sneaking around with a woman who belonged to another man. She is married and maybe he didn’t know that at first, and when he learned the truth, a good man would have walked away. Except once he knew his heart was too far gone and he continued to wait for whatever scraps of her time and attention that she would give him. She turned him into a man he never thought he would be, but he would still beg to have her in his life and in his bed.

Clearing his throat, Marco asked, “You all right?”

“I had an affair with a married woman who managed to break my fucking heart, so no, I’m not all right. And yes, I realize I fucking deserve it.”

But the moment he sees Fallon Kelly dancing on the stage of Velour, he can’t take his eyes off of her, and what he initially thought of as just a beautiful distraction for the night, might just be the woman who changes all the rules on Rafe. After a night of incredible sex, Rafe can’t get Fallon out of his mind, and for the first time in over a year, he doesn’t want to get drunk, he doesn’t want a passionless orgasm, he wants to spend time with Fallon.

Rafe’s tongue snaked across his bottom lip, lapping the lingering whiskey. “You don’t strike me as a woman who breaks the rules often. At least not her own rules.” His voice compelled her thoughts to retreat from the temptation she was feeling.

“I’ve followed and broken my fair share of rules. But you’re right—the only ones I’m concerned with following are my own.”

This time Rafe has chosen to give his heart to a woman who didn’t belong to someone else, but that doesn’t mean he will be able to win her heart in return. Fallon has been let down and pushed aside by everyone she tried to love in the past: her parents, her first love. She has built a wall around her heart that she has no desire to break down and no matter how much she craves everything the Rafe makes her feel, she refuses to ever open her heart again and be vulnerable of someone else.

But the moment she spotted Rafe in the crowd, her fear had loosened its grip a little. It was like the night she first saw him, finding him in a moment when her mind was elsewhere. Distracting her from the present.

Fallon has mastered the art of keeping her feelings hidden, but when her body relaxes and the panic eases in her chest the moment his hand presses against her, she knew he was dangerous. This man was a complete stranger. A complete stranger who had the ability to drain the control from her body and claim it for himself. Her body had become her source of power, yet it was defenseless when it ran along his. Even just the simple touch of his hand.

He was a confusing, compelling contradiction. He absorbed her hidden emotions yet at the same time made her feel. He was dangerous, yet his nearness alone gave her a sense of security she’d never experienced.

Fallon won’t ever let herself feel love for someone again. Never give her heart again. But Rafe has no intention of letting her go. He hasn’t been able to move on with his life, and he certainly never felt for Bridgette when he feels for Fallon. She thinks he will let her push him away, but he will make Fallon break all her rules before he walks away from her.

It’d been so long since he’d felt a hunger for a woman’s body in the way he did for Fallon’s. He didn’t just want to have her; he wanted to explore her, satisfy her, bring her to a numbing orgasm by his fingers alone. He couldn’t process the reason for his abrupt, curious greed. But he wouldn’t be appeased until he had it.

Rafe might finally be ready to take his heart back from a woman who was never his to love, but if Fallon refuses to give her heart in return, has he just doomed himself to another broken heart?

Learn more or order a copy of A Beautiful Distraction by Kelsie Leverich, out May 6, 2014:

Lucy Dosch writes book reviews for her blog http://ebookobsessed.com. Her e-reader has turned her love of reading into an obsession. When she is not reading, she likes to spend time with her husband and two daughters.